Irezumi
by aclaff1002
Summary: Azami Donnelly is aware of the Shinigami world, but until she’s attacked by a hollow, never had much interest in either Shinigami, Hollow, or spirits. When two Shingami come to her rescue that fateful day, her whole life changed in ways she never imagined
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hello to anyone who happens to read this! I appreciate your intrest in my fic.

Sooo this is my first fanfic, revolving around Renji and my own OC, Azami. Just so that everyone knows, I am not a short winded writer. So this first chapter revolves strictly around my OC, because I believe that her background and overview is important to her development, and the plot of the story. So please, bear with me for the first few chappies. Also, I want everyone to know that this fic will probably be resonably long. Ive just started the 7th chapter and am already 35 pages into it. In other words, if you're willing to deal with good detail and story line before jumping right into the love story, than you should enjoy it.

Special thanks to my buddy LuminousWeb, who is my editor and good friend... You rock.

BTW, Irezumi is the Japanese word for "tattoo". Flash backs are indicated by italics, and I dont own bleach, only Azami.

Enjoy!!!!

_**Chapter 1**_

22-year old Azami Donelly walked another step closer to her small apartment. It was the same venture she made every day. Walking from her apartment to the bus stop in the morning; and then back to her apartment from the same stop after a long day at university. She hummed tunelessly to herself and adjusted her iPod in her messenger bag as she strode on down the sidewalk.

Most people Azami's age would have readily driven or taken a cab home from school. Then again, she was firm in her belief that most of her fellow students were relatively lazier than she was, and she almost prided herself in the fact that she took public transportation and walked. She lived relatively far from her small college in Karakura town, in a smaller town to the north called Oita. Her daily circuit gave her time to think. Think about her day, her school work, and her life in general.

She pulled her grey cargo jacket closer to her body. She had to admit, she wasn't dressed for the sudden snow, and she was feeling the sting of the cool wind through her relatively light coat. There were only about 4 days left in the fall season, and the snow had just started falling when she had stepped off of the bus that day, as if it had been waiting for her to start her tread home before coming down. _Mother Nature is out to get me, _she thought spitefully. For some reason though, she couldn't help but laugh as she thought of how ridiculous that thought had sounded in her head.

She switched her iPod to shuffle mode and looked up at the sky while walking a few steps farther. When her gaze returned to the sidewalk, she saw a group of young girls walking towards her, shuffling down the pavement. When one of the young girls noticed Azami glancing at them, she muttered something to the other girls, and they made a point to put as big a gap between her and themselves as they could when they passed. Azami scoffed and adjusted her jacket again as she hunched against the cold wind. She supposed she looked a bit intimidating, but she was nothing to _fear,_ per se. She stood about 5 foot 7 inches tall; she had a slim, athletic figure, though you'd never be able to tell under the fall clothes she was wearing. Her hair, black-brown with shocks of dark auburn, hung sleekly past her shoulders with a slight wave. She had pale but beautiful skin, which was flushed slightly in the cold air. She supposed the feature that shocked the girls the most had been her eyes. They were green…a rather shocking green, if she was completely honest with herself. The color was accented by the line of black eye liner that she religiously wore on her upper eyelids every day. She didn't wear much makeup; in fact, she hardly wore any except for what she wore on her eyes. A relatively modest cat eye and some mascara, and she was good to go. The only other accessory that she constantly wore was the scowl pasted to her face. She wasn't a mean person necessarily; she had just gone through too much in her life to walk around with a fake smile on her face, like so many other people in the world did. She had suffered, she was stronger for it, and there was no reason to hide behind a mask of constant cheerfulness.

Azami had been born to two wonderful, loving parents in Boston, Massachusetts, in the spring of 1986. Her father, a full blooded Irishman named John Donelly, had married her mother, a beautiful Japanese woman by the name of Shiori, right out of medical school. He had worked hard to get his career off the ground while in the Boston, and after 6 years of hard work and stress, he had finally built enough of a nest egg to start a family and begin settling down. In fact, he had become one of the most prominent surgeons on the East Coast. Azami grew up in a wealthy neighborhood just outside of the city, and was a happy, privileged child. She was adored by everyone in the family, and people that met her in the neighborhood instantly fell in love with her. She was clever, she was cute, she was affectionate, and most people swore she was the most beautiful child they had ever seen, with her mixture of Japanese and Irish traits. She had only ever made one true friend in her childhood years, but that friend was all she had needed. Lauren was a pretty young girl; her father was a prominent lawyer, and her mother, the cookie cutter version of the perfect housewife. They had met for the first time at a neighborhood block party, and had bonded instantly. Lauren would be the only friend Azami would keep until adulthood.

At the age of 13, Azami's parents had dropped the bomb that they were uprooting her, from her perfect life in Boston, to move to a smaller town, in….Japan. Her father had gotten an excellent job offer in a hospital, in one of the bigger cities there, and they wanted her to leave everything to go with them, obviously. They said it was because "It would be good for her", and "They wanted her to see the other side of her family, and learn about her Japanese background" but she couldn't help but be furious with them anyway. She had said some terrible things, that she hated them, that she would never forgive them, but it had ultimately made no difference. They were moving, halfway around the world, to a country she had been told about extensively, but had never actually visited. She would leave her school, her dad's parents, and her house. It would be awful. The thing she had been worried about losing the most, was Lauren. They were like sisters now. It would be terrible to leave her only 2 years before starting High School, something they had been looking forward to tackling together for some time now.

The next 6 months before the move went by far too fast for Azami. Her parents spent a lot of time making sure she knew everything about Japan before they actually took her there. Conveniently, she already spoke a fair amount of Japanese, because her grandmother had insisted on her learning it growing up. Her dad spoken it proficiently enough, because he had learned it in college to help his relationship with Shiori's parents improve… It did little to help them like the idea of their daughter marrying "The giant Irish brute," as her grandmother so fondly called him. She always seemed to forget that he was a reasonably affluent member of society and a well educated doctor as well. Azami's parents still insisted on sending her to a tutor twice a week, to polish her off and get her speaking the language fluently. She resented it greatly, seeing as she felt it was cutting away from her time to be with friends before the move.

Before she knew it, she was standing on Laurens doorstep while they both hugged each other and cried. Her parents were parked in the driveway, waiting to head to the airport, to cart her away forever. Azami had to admit, their parents had worked out a decent agreement. The girls would spend the summers together at Azami's house in Oita, and then they would see each other in the winters: Azami would come back home to Boston, and stay with Lauren and her father's parents over the holidays. It wasn't enough, but it was a lot more than Azami had ever planned on having, so she relied on that time together to keep her and Lauren's friendship alive.

Azami had planned to hate Japan from the moment she arrived there. She had already hated it for the 6 months before the move; so, keeping that feeling alive would not be hard once they landed on the island…. She couldn't have been more wrong. She loved Japan, from almost the very moment she was out of the airport. She would never admit it, and she still sulked around her parents for the first two weeks of living there, steadfast in trying to prove her point. The more time she spent there, the more she loved it, and soon, she couldn't hide it anymore. She loved the constant flow of people whenever she was in the city. It was just like being in Boston, but more colorful, and friendly. She loved the smell that rolled off of the grass near her new house, and the fact that her neighborhood was so open and fresh. Sure, she still missed Boston. In a way she missed the gruff personalities of everyone on the east coast, she missed the changing leaves in the fall, and mostly, she missed Lauren. But their friendship was thriving, despite their long distance. The girls talked almost every night, and on top of seeing each other at every single school break, they were doing well. Azami had made some friends at her school, and they got along wonderfully, but there would never be another Lauren, and as long as they kept in touch, they were both happy.

High school started for Azami, and she was one of the most popular girls in her class. She never knew it, or even picked up on it, but the boys loved her, and the girls that weren't jealous of her thought she was one of the sweetest people they knew. She had grown up very well, for the most part. By the age of 16, all of her adolescent awkwardness was nearly invisible, and she looked much older than many of the girls she studied with. She really kept mostly to herself, and though she had boyfriends, she was never really very interested in any of the guys she went to school with. She had that mischievous side, and preferred to date boys a bit older than her from other schools. She began getting exceptionally bold her sophomore year, sneaking off during lunch period with said older boys, going to get lunch in the city, or just running off to the car to fool around, like normal 16-year olds do. She got caught a couple times, and was reprimanded by the school, usually with extra laps at her track practice, or maybe a short detention, but it was never a big deal. Her parents had hardly ever reprimanded her at all. She was always home on time, got excellent grades, and was positively pleasant in their presence. She was a Daddy's girl, and it was evident by her severe lack of ever having really been disciplined. But she knew that if she followed _almost_ all of the rules, she could certainly break one, like closed campus, in favor of some lunch somewhere else…she always managed to hide the fact that it she may have actually been in the car of a senior boy from another school…But her parent trusted her, and respected her enough not to hover.

The end of her junior year was when everything had changed. Lauren was set to come out about a week before the end of school. She was going to spend most of her days before Azami's school year ended with Azami's mother at the house, and then come to Azami's school and sit in and observe a couple of her classes, just to see what school in Japan was like. Azami imagined it would be very boring for her, seeing as she spoke little to no Japanese, she would really have no idea what was going on. What Lauren _would _love, though, was the fact that every boy in the school would be following her around like a love sick puppy. Having a beautiful blonde American girl in your school doesn't happen every day in Japan. She would love the attention. That was one thing Azami could count on. Then they would have all summer to spend together, going into the city, walking at the gardens, going to their first real high school party, or even just hanging out. Azami had her license now, and they were mobile…The world had better watch out.

Azami and her parents left to pick Lauren up from the airport right around sunset. It was going to be about a 45-minute drive, and her parents didn't want to be late. Her mother fretted over the possibility of Lauren being in the Japanese airport by herself at night. Azami knew better though, she and Lauren could both take care of themselves, and Lauren knew the airport like the back of her hand at this point, so there was really nothing to worry about. They drove, talked about Azami's final projects that were due in the next week. Her dad made fun of her not having a boyfriend yet, and while Azami rolled her eyes, her mother chided him for teasing their daughter. They were all so happy and relaxed that they hardly saw the car on the other side of the road cross the median before and slam into the front of their Honda.

_Azami sat up in the middle of the street. She felt funny. Her eyes focused and she saw her family's car. The front half of it was gone, completely smashed in. The car that had hit them was now tipped on its side, she could hear someone was groaning inside of it, and her stomach turned. She looked at her hands, they seemed unscathed. She then looked down at her legs…what the hell had happened to her right leg? It was clearly broken, why couldn't she feel it? People were starting to gather around the accident. Where were her parents? How did she end up outside of the car? Why the hell couldn't she feel any pain!? She heard one of the onlookers holler something, and footsteps began approaching. She turned around, and was appalled by what she saw. She looked down and saw…herself. But it wasn't her, because she was sitting up, right? If she was sitting up, how was this mangled version of her lying beneath her? She gasped, stood up quickly, and then she noticed the chain that hung from her chest, to the shell of a body on the pavement. She grabbed it and tugged at it, it felt odd, as though it was bolted right into her sternum. One of the observers was at her side now, or, her body's side anyway, his hand pressed over the gash in her neck, stopping the blood that was quickly falling onto the street, while his eyes appraised the damage done to the rest of her face and body. _

_Other people were heading towards the cars; the man in the other vehicle had already been pulled out and laid on the ground. Somehow, he was conscious. People were working on getting her parents out of the car. She ran over the vehicle, but was stopped short by the chain holding her to her body. She screamed for somebody to help them, but was not surprised when no one even turned to look at her. She had a fair idea of what was happening at this point, and she was sure, that whatever had just occurred…She was not among the plane of the living right now. She heard sirens and cries of relief from the people around her. __Somebody please, just help my parents, __she thought silently. The EMTs were out with the stretchers, and immediately went to pick her body and the unknown man's body off of the ground. They carted her into the truck while another team worked on getting her parents out of the car. She turned away from her body, to watch her parents, and then, she saw them. Both of them were standing, outside the car, dazed, holding one another's hand, looking around, presumably for Azami. They had chains attached to their chests too. _

_Azami made to jog towards them and they walked over to her in response. They stood there, in the middle of the road, each of them with the most peculiar look on their faces. When they finally each snapped out of their own internal reverie, another presence had joined them. Azami glanced to her right to see a short, blonde girl wearing a black Kimono and carrying…a __katana?__ They looked at the stranger questioningly, and Azami's parents' gaze wandered to their daughters devastated body in the back of the ambulance. Her father choked, and her mother wailed; they had just figured out what was happening. _

"_I don't want you to be afraid," the woman in black stated, "but I assume you realize what just happened to your family?" She shot Azami's father a questioning look. He only nodded in response, his eyes still locked on the body in the back of the medical truck. Azami seemed to be the only one with the ability to talk._

"_We do," she responded quietly, "But who are you? I'm assuming you're the only one that can see us?" She had wanted to ask about the sword, but she honestly figured that the woman couldn't explain who she was without giving some explanation for the weapon she so casually carried._

_The woman smiled at them, and it was a kind, warm smile. "I am a Shinigami, and I'm here to help you. You may call me Saita," she patted Azami on her shoulder, "I'm here to send you to the Soul Society." She smiled again. Upon seeing their confused faces, she continued with her explanation. "It's very similar to your world here on earth…some people compare it to heaven." They all let out a sigh of relief, as if they had been expecting her to cart them right off to Hades, and Saita smiled even wider. "Though, I can't say that you'll __all__ be in need of my help today…" She motioned to the ambulance, and Azami's eyes widened as she felt a tug on her chain, a tug that seemed to correspond perfectly to the jolt of electricity being sent into her body from the defibrillator in the EMT's hands. She shook her head and turned back to her parents. Their looks had changed into two of the most relieved expressions she had ever seen. She didn't understand __why __they looked that way. They were trying to save her life over theirs. If she lived, in the human world, didn't they realize that then they wouldn't be together anymore? Were they stupid!? They wouldn't be a family anymore. She would be alone! Why did they look so happy at the thought of her being dragged back into her physical body? Why would they want her to go through the pain of living without them? Tears welled up in her eyes as her father and mother reached out to her._

"_It's just not your time, H__HHHH__oney." Her father stated simply, hugging her and ruffling her hair with his big hand. His tone held a mixture of severe sadness, and overwhelming joy. It was in that instant she understood why they were acting this way. Her parents didn't want her to go with them, not because they wanted to be without her; they would always wait for her, she knew that. She realized that they didn't want her to die because she deserved to live. She was young; she was meant to live a full life, to be happy, and die a long time from now. She stopped crying as the realization washed over her. There was another, stronger, pull on the chain._

_She looked over at her mother. Her beautiful mother. She would miss her. They embraced shortly, and then separated, looking at one another, memorizing each other's faces. Her mother smiled, wiped away a tear from Azami's face and then placed her hands on her daughters shoulders and pulled her close again. "I love you baby." She whispered softy into Azami's hair. A third, almost painful pull at the chain, and Saita smiled at her again. _

"_I suggest you walk over a bit closer to your body, Azami" She stated simply "It will hurt more if you get pulled back from a distance". Azami smiled sadly at the Shinigami. She was ready to go back, or, at least, she thought she was. Her parents walked her closer to her body, though it was clear that they hated to see Azami's physical vessel in such a state. They smiled at her, the EMT was charging the defibrillator again, and it was almost time for her to return to the human world. He pressed the paddles to her chest, and with one short glimpse back at her parents, she was yanked back into her body._

_All she had really remembered after that was the pain, reaching out and grabbing every bone and piece of tissue in her body. She had wanted the scream, but was struggling to breathe. The EMT above her had pressed some sort of mask to her face, and it made breathing easier. Her leg had been throbbing, and her neck had felt as though it were on fire. Though, the worst pain had been in her abdomen, searing agonizing pain radiated from beneath her ribs. She had felt so __weak. __Utterly and__impossibly weak. She couldn't manage to move, even if she put all of her effort into it. Her lolling eyes had wandered to her left, and she had seen…her parents, and the blond Shinigami, looking at her while the EMT's worked on her. She hadn't thought she would be able to see them after returning to this body. She lifted her left arm, with every bit of strength she had and reached for them. The Shinigami took a step back, looking puzzled, and her parents smiled. She felt her consciousness waver, and she began to go numb. Her parents and Saita faded out of her view, and into darkness. _

_She had woken up three days later at the hospital. Lauren was there, after having been brought to the hospital by her grandparents. She was visibly upset, and after the doctors told Azami what her body had been though, she could see why. She had been thrown over 15 feet from the car. One broken leg, a collapsed lung, some internal bleeding due to a ruptured spleen and a damaged kidney, and apparently she had nearly externally hemorrhaged from the glass that had cut her neck. The doctors told her about her parents, that there was nothing they could do, and that she was lucky to have gone out the window, rather than getting pinned in the car. Everyone said she handled their death very well…too well, actually. People were worried about her. The truth was that she had just already known that her parent wouldn't be there when she woke up. She knew where they were, and that they were together, which was comforting. What that feeling of comfort didn't help protect against was the aching pain in her heart. It never went away. In a way Azami had never wanted it to, she thought it helped her to remember them, even if it caused her emotional distress, it was worth it to keep the memory of her parents alive._

_The day of their funeral was the day she had seen her first "other"__soul. She has been walking around the cemetery, after the funeral services had ended. She had seen no reason to stand next to the coffins holding her parents corpses. The bodies weren't who her parents were anyway… they were just shells that had housed her parents' souls in this world. She had said her goodbyes on the day of the accident, and she didn't need anything more than that. Everyone watched her as she walked off, her black pea coat wrapped tightly around her slim figure. Everyone left her alone, even Lauren. They had been smart in assuming that she had needed her space, because she did. She really hadn't wanted to be around people that day anyway. As she meandered down the dirt path, through the green grass, and suddenly, she thought she heard a noise. A shuffling, and then…a sniffle? She hadn't been sure, but when she turned the corner, behind one of the large trees, sat a girl, dressed in a green jumper, and she was definitely crying, but the most noticeable thing about this girl was the fact that she was mildly __translucent__, and that a big, heavy chain hung from the middle of her chest. Azami gasped and jumped back, and the girl just stared at her with frightened eyes. Azami had been certain the reason she could see, and hear the girl, was because of her experience with "the other side", two weeks prior to the funeral. Azami bent down, unable to kneel due to the heavy boot that kept her lower leg immobile. It was a cumbersome device, but necessary if she wanted her leg to set properly. She looked right at the girl before speaking. _

"_Hi, I'm Azami." She paused for one moment. "What's your name? What's wrong?" The little child looked up at her with such a look of shock that, for a minute, Azami was sure she had said something to upset the girl._

"_You can see me?" she asked in a shaky tone. Azami nodded and the girl went on. "Can you help me? I can't find my family, I'm afraid that they may be very worried about me." She paused briefly, "…my name is Kiyoko."_

_Azami looked back at the procession of people still gathered around her parents' gravesites; no one was even glancing over to see where she had gone. She had reached her hand out to the girl, confident that no one was watching, and Kiyoko had taken it eagerly, and then, they proceeded to walk, or limp, in Azami's case, all of the way out of the cemetery, and on down the street. _

_They had walked for hours. Azami had no clue where they were going and she didn't think that Kiyoko really did either, but they were comforted by each other's presence. When it started to get dark, Azami had wondered what she would do… Her grandparents and Lauren would be looking for her, but she couldn't just leave Kiyoko. She steered them in the direction of her grandparent's home. Maybe the girl could stay with her for a while, it wasn't as if the girl would take up space, or eat all of the family food. Perhaps it would've worked, just until she was able to help her find her family… She wasn't sure, but she knew that she couldn't abandon the girl, when she was the only one that could help her. _

_When they were less than two blocks away from the house, there was a sudden shuffling noise and a swift movement at Azami's side. She tightened her grip on Kiyoko's hand and stopped them in their tracks. Before she could even get a word out of her mouth, the figure stopped right in front of them, and to Azami's surprise, she recognized the fast moving creature… It was Saita, the Shinigami that had taken her parents the night of the accident. Saita looked at Azami and then at Kiyoko, and then to their hands, still grasped together._

_She sighed and made eye contact. "Azami…You can see us both, can't you?" Saita asked quietly, motioning to the girl and herself. Azami had only nodded before speaking. _

"_Should I not be able to?" She paused, and glared at Saita. She hadn't known why, but she was offended by the shimigami talking to her as though it was her own fault that she could apparently see dead people…or should, now. "Isn't it normal after having an experience like I did, to be able to still see…you people?" She spat icily. She motioned at Saita with a flick of her free hand. She felt Kiyoko shudder slightly while looking at the Shinigami, she was afraid; she had never seen the stranger with the sword before. Azami immediately softened upon looking at the young girl. She pulled her closer, and knelt down in front of her, ignoring the excruciating pain in her lower leg. She winced and put her hands on Kiyoko's shoulders. "Kiyoko…" She stated softly, "This woman is named Saita, and she's here to help you find your family." Kiyoko looked confused, and Azami had expected that. "She's going to send you to a place called the Soul Society. You'll be safe there, and I'm sure your family is waiting for you. Will you let her help you?" She asked quietly. Kiyoko smiled, she had formed some bond similar to trust with Azami over their hours together, and with a smile, she turned to face Saita. _

"_Will I see my family where you're sending me?" She looked eagerly into Saita's eyes. Saita smiled in response._

"_You might have to look for them, but yes, I believe you might find them there." She stated it confidently. Kiyoko stepped forward, and while she was still holding Azami's hand, Saita unsheathed her katana, and using the butt of it, stamped Kiyoko's forehead. As she began to dissipate upwards into the sky, she mouthed a "thank you" to Azami, and then, she was gone._

_Azami had stood up and promptly walked away from Saita. She was in no mood to talk to the Shinigami. She was fully aware that it had just been Saita's job to collect her parents, and lost souls like Kiyoko, but she couldn't help but feel a __small__ amount of resentment for the girl. Saita followed after her quickly. _

"_Azami, wait!" she jogged after her. Azami did not respond. "Amazi, there are things you need to know about the new…" She paused, "Power that you've acquired." Azami stopped dead in her tracks._

"_Look, Saita. I'm not going to go around sticking my nose into every…..soul's business…" She felt confused with how bizarre the statement had sounded. "In fact, for the most part, I'll probably just ignore them. I just couldn't ignore that little girl…" She drifted off as she limped down the street. She could hear Saita's light footfall behind her. Suddenly, someone grabbed her arm, and Saita pulled Azami around to face her. _

"_No, Azami, you don't understand." Saita looked right into Azami's eyes. "With this new gift you have, you could be in danger." Saita sighed and continued speaking. "This will sound insane, so I'll just be as forward as I can about it…there are creatures, called 'Hollow'. They're souls that have been so consumed by their sadness, or anger, that they have turned into a monster….of sorts. Hollow feed off of earth bound souls, like Kiyoko…" Saita saw the disgust in Azami's face at the mention of the Hollow's diet. "Azami, the only thing a Hollow loves more than feeding on the soul of the deceased, is feeding on the soul of a human with high spiritual power. You have that now, so you have to keep an eye out. It's my job to kill the Hollow, and send souls to the Soul Society," Saita paused, and shot Azami a look of genuine concern, "But please, just be careful. I may not always be around to help you out." Azami continued to glare at the blonde. Saita looked surprised at how unfazed Azami seemed by the information she had just delivered to her. In Saita's eyes, it was as good as a premature death sentence. Saita continued in spite of Azami's bad attitude, "Just….if you ever feel funny, like, you do when you sense a soul…but more unpleasant, get inside, or run in the opposite direction… I know that doesn't make very much sense…" Saita voice drifted off. She didn't seem to know what to say to her in this situation, and to Azami, her advice had seemed pointless and bizarre._

"_Yeah…" She pulled away from Saita, "I'll be sure to watch out for that," and with that, she walked away. She only saw Saita a couple times after that, and only from a distance. She really felt no need to keep any contact with the Shinigami, and she never saw, or "felt" the supposed Hollow. Even now, at the age of 22, she rarely spoke to the souls she saw, and just like when she was a teenager, she only helped the children. Even then she didn't do very much; she avoided the blonde Shinigami, or any Shinigami, as much as possible._

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Second A/N: I give cookies to everyone who reviews... Okay, that's a lie, but I will give every review a personal response. I know I dont have any yet, but my readers are important to me! So tell all of your friends about this story if you like so far, and please, PLEASE review, even if you think its crap!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hi friends! So far I've gotten only one review, but I'm hoping that goes up with the more chapters and readers I accrue. So, here is chapter two. The first 6 chapters of this story may go up relatively fast, over a couple of weeks as I get them edited, but after that, it may be slower, because that's when the plot thickens, and thickening plot means more planning out and brainstorming for me, so I'm just giving you fair warning. We're not talking, like, months between updates, but it may go a week between chapters at that point. Anyway….

----------These lines indicate POV change, which happens a lot in the story from now on.

If you like my fic and Favorite or Alert it, please, please, PLEASE leave me a review. Even if it's only one sentence it is SOOOOOOO appreciated! Thanks! So now, let's move onto chapter two!

I don't own Bleach, only Azami.

_**Chapter 2**_

Azami shook her head. She hated dwelling on the past. Especially _that_ part of her past. It had been hard, not only adjusting without her parents, but adjusting to the things she saw now as well. Being able to see souls had been more annoying than she had originally thought it would be, and once they figured out you could see them, it was likely that they would not leave you alone until you figured out a way to help them. Which was why, for the most part, she had started ignoring them in the first place.

Opening the door to her modest flat, Azami took off her damp jacket. She shook some of the moisture out of her hair and walked to the kitchen. She couldn't seem to get her head to stop churning. It was maddening. Walking to her bedroom and opened a dresser drawer, Azami rummaged for a dry shirt. The sudden snow had soaked straight through her jacket and into her shirt, causing it to cling to her skin in an uncomfortable way. Out came a navy blue v-neck tee which she pulled on after discarding her wet shirt into the hamper. She changed her black pants too; they were soaked with cold water from the bottom hem to the middle of the shins. Sliding into some jeans and walking into the bathroom, she took a quick glance in the mirror, and upon seeing her makeup was still in place, and that her hair looked _almost_ as good as it had when she had left her apartment that morning, Azami was satisfied. She used her hand to pull her hair behind her shoulders, and with the other hand, touched the long scar that stretched from just under the back of her jaw, down to the front of her collar bone. It was a constant reminder of she had lost that night in the accident. She looked down, released her hair and sighed as she turned off the light before heading back out to her living room.

She had never been one to preen over herself. That had always been more in Lauren's personality. Azami laughed out loud while thinking of her friend. Lauren, the stunning dirty blonde hippie…and the only hippie she knew that could spend hours in the bathroom before going somewhere as simple as, say, the mall. It wasn't that Azami didn't enjoy looking nice; it was just that she didn't really care enough about what other people had ever thought of her. If she had known what they were thinking though, she would have known that most everyone thought she was stunning when she did little to nothing cosmetically.

She went to her messenger bag, pulled out her iPod and hooked it up to her stereo. Within seconds she was listening to a playlist of Mozart's greatest pieces. She smiled at her musical choice. It was something to help relax her out of thinking about her parents. When they had passed away, they had left her everything. She had lived with her grandparents for a couple years after the accident, and it had been difficult. They were nothing like her parents. They were strict and old-fashioned. After turning 18 and having access to the funds her parents had left her, she promptly moved into her own flat closer to her future college. It had really improved her rocky relationship with her grandparents, having that needed space between them. She spoke to them a few times a week now, and went over for dinner a couple times a month. It was the only time she drove; her grandparents hated seeing her on public transportation.

She walked into her kitchen and pulled out a wine glass. It was Friday, and Friday meant no school the next day…which also meant a couple glasses of wine were fair game, especially if she was having one of her nights where she couldn't get the past out of her head. She had a half finished bottle of white wine in her fridge, and quietly poured herself a glass, not letting any noise interrupt the music. She sighed and rolled her head back on her shoulders, and then forward, to stretch it out. Walking out to the living room, she picked up the nearest book on the coffee table and began to read.

Within minutes, she could tell it was not going to work. Her eyes were reading the words on the pages of the book, but her mind was absorbing nothing. She could still only think of her parents, of the souls she saw from day to day, and of that _damn_ Shinigami, Saita. She exhaled angrily, and threw the book onto the coffee table. She turned off her iPod and slammed down the last couple of gulps in the bottom of her wine glass. She stood up, walked to the door, grabbing her bag while sliding on her Converse and her dark leather bomber jacket. There was only one place that she would be loud enough to shake her own thoughts from her head, and that was down the street, at the local karaoke bar.

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Abarai Renji sat on the roof of the Urahara shop, in Karkura Town, Japan. He watched Jinta taunt Ururu down in the front lot. Would the boy never learn that the girl just would not react to him, no matter how much he provoked her? He exasperatedly sighed and set his chin on his palm. He wasn't sure what he thought of the human world most of the time, but one thing he knew, was that if there wasn't a Hollow around to kill, it was insanely boring. Literally: _insanely_ boring. It wasn't as if there wasn't enough going on…there was. In fact, for most of the rest of the team from Soul Society were working their asses off. He was probably the one with the least to do. In fact, Urahara had even contracted him into training Chad in his spare time. Of course he was doing it, but it wasn't the same as a real, all-out fight. He had to admit though, Chad was coming along nicely; and within a few weeks, he would probably be able to fight a strong Hollow or low-level Arrancar with no assistance, assuming that his power levels continued to increase at the rate that they were now.

He was itching to get out of the shop and away from everyone in it. He had considered going out and searching for Rukia, but since Ichigo's recent disappearances, he assumed that she was probably out researching and trying to find out what the hell he was up to. Ikkaku was almost in a worse situation than himself. Stuck with some overly amorous teenage girl that made him wear some of the most ridiculous clothes anyone had ever seen. Though it was entertaining for everyone else, Renji included, it hardly took away from the fact that he would rather have died than be in Ikkaku's shoes… He wouldn't have minded being in Yumichika's place though, because watching everything going on in that house must have been _classic. _He laughed himself as he thought of it. Rangiku was probably with Orihime; and knowing the two of them, they were probably creating some culinary abomination that they would call 'food' and try to pass off as 'edible'. He shuddered slightly at the thought. Toshiro was probably…He didn't know what Toshiro would be doing. They never really hung out or talked much…Toshiro always kept to himself.

Abruptly, he stood up and walked back down the stairs and into the shop. Urahara was sitting at the small tea table in the small dining room, a black cat sitting at his side.

"Ah! How are you doing tonight, Freeloader-san? Wonderful I hope?" The mysterious shop keeper didn't even look out from under his hat to address the red-headed vice captain. Renji glared and continued to walk out of the room. He could have sworn he heard the cat chuckleHe silently cursed the Shihoin name on his way out the door.

Renji walked outside and sat on the porch. The kids had disappeared somewhere, and that left him with nothing to watch. With a sigh, he reclined on the bench at the front of the shop. It was dark out, and cold, so there wasn't much to observe, except the lightly falling snow. The monotony was really, truly going to kill him. He couldn't escape it, unless he was kicking the shit out of some poor Hollow, or pummeling Ichigo for some unknown reason, he had nothing to do. He was about to go inside and train with Zabimaru when the phone in the pocket of his jeans went off. He eagerly flipped it open, and looked at the screen. A Hollow. Excellent! Just outside of town, in Oita, so he'd be the first one there. He stood up, and popped a small blue tablet into his mouth. In less than a second, he was in his spirit form. He turned to his gigai quickly.

"Go inside, and help Tessai with the chores." He stated simply. The artificial body nodded obediently and walked inside. If there was one thing the gigai was good for, it was house work. Renji used Shunpo to get to the located Hollow as fast as possible, on the screen of his phone, he could see if was moving relatively fast, which meant it must've been in pursuit of some prey. As he was about to leave Karkura Town and make his way into Oita, a figure appeared at his side… A tall, orange haired teenager in black Shinigami robes. Renji sighed exasperatedly.

"Che, Ichigo, what the hell are you doing here? I've got this." He continued running without even looking at the teen.

"Yeah well, I was in this area, and I felt your reiatsu and thought I'd see what was up. I could use the distraction," Ichigo stated simply. Renji threw him a contemptuous glance.

"Yeah, well, I need the fight. I have nothing to do at your buddy Urahara's. I got the signal first, so why don't you back off?" He knew he was overreacting, and at least after the fight, he would have someone to talk to for a bit on the run home…he paused at that thought. He really _MUST_ have been bored to want to start shooting the shit with Ichigo for no reason. He scoffed at himself and turned back to Ichigo. "So where the hell have you been, anyway? Rukia and Orihime have been worried about you. Now I find you're just hanging out at the edge of town……?" Ichigo did not turn to him, but Renji noticed that his shoulders stiffened at the question.

"I've been working on something…it's important," Ichigo drifted off. Renji had barely heard that last part. He decided not to press if further, since they were only about 2 minutes away from the Hollow now. If he wanted to piss Kurosaki off asking for information, he would do it on the way back.

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Azami had arrived at the bar less than 10 minutes after she had decided to go there. It was literally right around the corner from her flat. She walked through the door and shook out her hair. She walked over to the bar and grinned at the middle aged gentleman behind the counter. He smiled warmly at her while he dried a tumbler with his bar rag.

"Ah, Azami, another tough night?" The older man asked kindly. She smiled fully, and her whole face lit up. It was such a contrast to her usual expression. The barman was just about the only person aside from Lauren that could coax it out of her.

"You got it Mr. Sakamoto." She sat down at the front of the bar, among the small clusters of other people. Someone was crooning a horrific version of Bon Jovi's 'Living on a Prayer' in the background. Their heavy Japanese accent made Azami chuckle. She cringed at a particularly off-key note and Mr. Sakamoto smiled at her.

"Azami, how many times must I tell you? Please call me Hiro." He smiled at her from behind the bar. She grinned back at him.

"Aw, Mr. Sakamoto, you know I can't do that…" She took a sip of the sake he had placed in front of her. "I always have to be respectful of my elders." Her eyes danced over the rim of the small cup. Azami never went to the bar to get drunk. Sure, she would always have a couple drinks, but she really went for two main reasons. It was a karaoke bar. So when she went there to drown out her own thoughts, the musical screeching and squawking of the bars patrons worked effectively enough, without ingesting almost any liquor. The other reason she went was to visit . She had only been coming to the bar for a couple years, but she had taken a liking to the bar's owner from the moment she had met him. He reminded her of her father; not in the physical sense, but his personality instantly reminded her of her dad. His willingness to listen and give advice, his joking personality, and his overall kindness are what had made her so fond of him.

"Is it anything you would like to talk about?" He asked kindly, while she stared deftly at the lights above the bar. She smiled and shook her head.

"You wouldn't even believe it me if I told you…" She drifted off and blinked her eyes a few times before looking back at Mr. Sakamoto. He just smiled at her, nodded, and walked down to the other end of the bar to help another customer. One more thing she liked about Mr. Sakamoto was that he didn't pry.

About one hour and two drinks later, Azami was feeling calm and drained enough to go home. It always happened that, no matter how badly she had wanted to shut her thoughts up when she got to the bar, she always ended up unable to handle _any _more shrieking drunk people singing off-tune songs by the time she left at the end of the night. She said goodnight to Mr. Sakamoto, pulled on her coat, and walked out the door.

Walking down the street, Azami sighed and decided to take a walk around the block to take her time getting home. She was tired, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to sleep if she went straight back to her apartment. A short walk would be just what she had needed. She watched her breath fog up the clear night. It was _cold_. Unusually cold for that time of year…She blamed global warming. As she was turning the corner onto her street, she stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes widened and her body went rigid.

She was overcome with a feeling of dread…for apparently no real reason. There was nothing on the street, she couldn't hear anyone nearby…she was unable to explain it. She tried to take a step, and succeeded, but shakily. She slowly continued taking unsure steps until she was back to her normal pace, when she heard something behind her…someone breathing? She stopped moving again.

" My, my, my…what do we have here?" A deep, resonating voice spoke out behind her. Where had they come from? She gritted her teeth angrily. Some asshole was going to try and sneak up on her late on a Friday night? She didn't think so. She turned around angrily to confront the man, and was shocked by what she saw.

A large…creature. It walked on all fours, and was built similar to a dog or some kind of canine, but it didn't have paws, it had appendages akin to human hands, but with vicious looking claws at the ends of its fingers, and big, extended talons on its hind feet. What was most terrifying to Azami was that its face wasn't a face….it was a mask, or it looked like a mask, but made out of pure bone. It had a large, gaping hole in its chest.

"Going somewhere girl?" The creature's voice was sickeningly sweet, like some drunk trying to romance some unfortunate young woman at a bar. She looked the monster up and down.

"Shit!" was all she uttered before turning around and running down the street in the opposite direction. She went as fast as her feet would carry her, and after turning the corner, mentally thanked herself for staying active after high school track. She backtracked in her head, replaying the image of the creature on the street in her mind. She had known what it was as soon as she had seen it. A Hollow. One of those freaky monsters that Saita had told her about all those years ago. "Run or hide" was what she recommended to Azami. She scoffed and quickly glanced behind her, the thing was tearing up the pavement where it ran, for god's sake, and hiding in a building was supposed to protect her? Hell no! She would run, and she would run until her freaking legs gave out in exhaustion. She would push herself past her limit if it meant she wouldn't get eaten, or devoured, or whatever, by that _thing_. She looked around the street, no people, which was good; she didn't want someone else involved in her current…predicament.

"You can run all you want girl. I'm going to catch you." He almost sang the words behind her. He was like a cat playing with a mouse before consuming it. "It's such a treasure to find a human with such delicious soul pressure…" He smacked his lips. Azami could hear everything he was doing; he was gaining on her, quickly. She turned a wide corner at the end of the block, and hit black ice. Her legs went right out from under her, and she slid 10 feet across the pavement and into the opposite wall with a loud thud. _Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…_was all she could think while she scrambled to her feet. She wasn't fast enough; she was screwed now, and she knew it. Just as she was standing, the creature lurched forward and swiped at her with one of his long, clawed hands. She attempted to move out of the way, but he was so _fast_. She didn't even have time to get her body moving again.

Red blood sprayed everywhere. Up onto Azami's face, and onto the thin layer of snow that covered the ground. It soaked her shirt through quickly, and was flowing onto down her pants. She gasped, as the searing pain took hold of her senses. She fell to her knees, and then forward onto the ground. She lifted her bloody face out of the snow, and rolled herself over. She was looking straight into the face of the Hollow, and he was hunched over her, chuckling lightly.

"You know, you could have made that easier, but I always enjoy a good chase…." He started to lean down, closer to her. She spat blood at the monster, as a last act of defiance, and rolled back onto her stomach. She knew it was futile to try and crawl away, but she would fight until he finally made his move and killed her. She wasn't some withering flower that was just going to lie down and die. She was hurt, most definitely, she had felt worse that night of the accident, but the massive loss of blood was something she could not control and she was losing consciousness quickly.

"That's funny. You might as well just stop trying. You can't get away…." He drifted off; the laughter was still in his voice. She figured the only reason she had even been able to crawl the 10 feet she had, was because he enjoyed watching her feeble attempts at escape…He was a sadistic bastard. Azami paused; she was tired and she wouldn't stay conscious much longer because her body was beginning to shut down. Just as she sensed the Hollow approach from behind again, she noted another noise through the ringing in her ears. Voices? Yes, male voices; yelling, a cracking noise, and a howl… She tried to turn herself onto her back again, but was too weak. She bowed her head, and gave into darkness.

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Renji and Ichigo came closer to where the Hollow was supposedly hunting.

"It's stopped moving!" Renji growled as he looked at his phone. He pointed to the North West. "Over there."

"Crap…" Ichigo muttered as they used shunpo to get to the location as quickly as possible. What they saw when they reached the small street surprised them greatly.

Before them was a human girl, using her arms to drag her body away from the Hollow standing a short distance behind her. She was bleeding, and from what Renji could see, she was badly injured. Blood stained the snow, and made a long, gruesome trail behind her as she pulled herself farther from the monster. He had to give it to the girl; she had to have a reasonable amount of resolve to still be moving. Ichigo sucked in a breath at Renji's side.

"You get the human; I'll take care of the Hollow." Renji stated sharply. He couldn't help but be a little elated at the idea of a fight, no matter how short lived it might be. Ichigo nodded and shot down next to the girl as Renji descended upon the Hollow.

He hadn't even needed to use his Shikai on the creature. It was fast and easy…It hadn't really been what Renji was looking for, but it was something to do at least. He walked over to Ichigo, who was on the ground with the human girl. Trying to put pressure on the gaping gash that ran across her abdomen, she was still bleeding out, and unconscious.

"Renji, we've gotta get her back to Urahara's. She'll die if we don't get her healed." He looked up at Renji, a panicked expression in his eyes. Renji sighed. Ichigo always beat himself up over anyone that got hurt in a fight with a Hollow, even if he didn't know the person.

"Couldn't we just take her to a human hospital or something? Can't they fix her up there?" Renji stated shortly. He nearly laughed at the look of fury his comment had coaxed out of Ichigo. It was true though; couldn't they just drop her off?

"Baka!" Ichigo shouted. "She'll die before they can stop the bleeding. Tessai is the only person who can help her in time to keep her alive. Besides, even if we did get her to the hospital, and they happened to stop the hemoraging, they would wonder how in the hell she ended up there in the first place, and how she got injured. The cops would be called in to talk to her, and if she told them what really happened, they would lock her away in some mental ward…"

"Shit Ichigo, shut up!!!" Renji yelled angrily at him. "Just pick her up and bring her back then! I didn't want a speech about the girl's quality of life after a Hollow attack!" He glared at Ichigo angrily. Ichigo violently threw up his middle finger and Renji and then gingerly picked the girl up before they began to shunpo back into Karkura Town, to the Urahara shop.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Yo. How is everyone today? Good I hope! Or, atleast, better than me, because my hours just got cut at work, and people are getting laid off! Wooooo thank you shitty economy! Your gifts are never-ending!

Anyway, chapter 3 is here! Yaaaaaay! So, you know what this means, right?

**REVIEW**! For the love of god, review my story! So many people are alerting and favoriting it, and still only one review? Oh, my poor 22 year old heart cant take any more people ignoring my cries for aknowledgement!

So...that was a bit of an over reaction... My heart is fine, no one worry... But seriously, if you review I will seriously write you a response. If you think something could be improved upon, tell me! Or if you love it, tell me that too:)

Elvivo gets props for being the only person to review so far. Her Fics are fantastic, check her out!

Alright, alright, here it is, chappie 3. Enjoy it!

**_Chapter 3_**

They arrived at the shop less than ten minutes later, and Ichigo quickly ran inside with the girl as Renji followed behind.

"Tessai! Urahara!" Ichigo yelled loudly while bursting through the door. Renji had to admit, the girl was not looking well now that he saw her in the light. She was unnaturally pale, and blood stained every inch of her clothes, parts of her face, and even the ends of her long hair. Tessai and Urahara came wandering out of the kitchen with questioning looks, but were at Ichigo's side as soon as they saw the girl in his arms.

"What happened?" Tessai asked in his normal calm tone as they walked into one of the many rooms inside the shop. Ichigo shrugged and set her down on the white bed.

"We were following a Hollow that had been chasing her, and by the time we got there, it had gotten a swipe at her and she was just dragging herself along the pavement. I guess she passed out pretty soon after that…" Renji recalled scratching his head nonchalantly. Sure, he felt bad for the human girl, and it was his job to protect her, he just didn't think they needed another human to worry about protecting at the shop.

Ichigo scowled at his disinterest. Tessai walked over to a cabinet in the bedroom, and shot orders over his shoulder. "Renji, get her coat off of her, Ichigo, go to the cabinet in the bathroom and gather bandages, and Shouten, start cleaning her wound." Everyone nodded, Ichigo left the room, Renji reluctantly went to her bedside and Urahara dug in the drawer next to the bed for supplies to clean her laceration. Renji gingerly unfastened the buttons on her jacket…it felt weird, undressing some poor human girl he didn't know. He sighed at his own stupidity, and quickly pulled the coat off of her. What he saw shocked him.

The first thing he noticed was how much worse her injury was, without the heavy winter coat on. Her dark blue shirt was positively soaked in blood, and the fabric on the front of the shirt was ripped in half from the rib cage down. Under the torn fabric was a large, angry gash. It was deep and seeping blood. He cringed looking at it. The other thing he had noticed was the girl's tattoos. He knew it was stupid to be looking at them in the face of the girls impending death, but being completely honest with himself, he had never seen a girl with so many. She wasn't fully covered by any means, but a large tattoo covered her upper arm from the elbow upwards to the shoulder. Just under her collar bone another one started, but her shirt was obscuring the rest of it. She had two small ones on the insides of her wrists; he could glimpse another one under the torn fabric of her shirt, on the side of her abdomen. He suddenly noticed someone at his shoulder… Ichigo.

"Whoa, check those out Renji." He snickered behind him. Renji swiftly turned around to yell at him, but Tessai came bursting between himself and Ichigo before he could react.

"Can you two move, please? If you failed to notice, this girl will die if I don't stop this bleeding, and in order for me to heal her, I have to clean this wound first." They looked at him with a questioning expression. He continued to elaborate, "Were Orihime here, it wouldn't be an issue, she could just reverse her injury, and this girl could walk out of here tonight. But Orihime is NOT here, and this girl could get a serious infection since she's human." Urahara just nodded at Tessai. His face was grave, which was odd for the shopkeeper. Renji understood why; it was never pleasant to watch a young woman die in your home. Tessai pulled the girls shirt up, to the middle of her rib cage, and her wound just continued to look worse and worse, the more they all saw of it. Urahara stood at Tessai's side, holding all of the sanitation supplies Tessai would need to clean the girl up. Renji couldn't help but notice the large tattoo he had caught a glimpse of earlier. It was a large, side piece, mottled with her spilling blood. It appeared to be composed of Koi fish, and that was all he could make out beneath all of the crimson liquid. He studied the girls face. She was getting paler by the moment.

"Boys," a stern, female voice said from behind them. Renji and Ichigo turned around quickly to see Yoruichi, in human form, standing in the doorway. "I think you can leave. I'll help Tessai take care of our newest guest. I hardly think she'll appreciate finding out that the two of you were in here watching her while she was laid out bloody and half-naked on the bed." She stared hey could tell she was giving them and order, and not making a request. They both bowed and shuffled out of the room.

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Yoruichi walked up behind Tessai's large form at the side of the girl's bed. It had been almost two days since the boys had brought her in; the girl was still pale and unconscious, but she looked much better. Her torso was wrapped in supportive bandaging from below her collarbone to the tops of her hips. Changing her bandages had been a job that Yoruichi had volunteered doing out of respect for the girl. She figured the young woman would not have appreciated finding out one of the many men in the house had done it for her upon waking up. She smiled down at the girl; she was going to make it, Yoruichi knew that. She wondered what reaction the girl would have waking up in this unfamiliar place. Judging by the fierce look on her face even in sleep, she was assuming the girl would be angry. She looked at the glowing shield projected by Tessai that hovered over the girls figure.

"How is she?" she asked quietly, her arms crossed across her chest. Tessai sighed lightly, but otherwise remained still.

"She'll be fine. But the wound was deep, and surrounded by some kind of dark energy that I'm having a hard time repelling. Some new experiment of Aizen's, no doubt." He shot her a look of disgust and then continued. "She'll recover, but it will take time and several more healing sessions in the coming weeks… I don't think she'll be able to go home, or back to her normal life for a while, Yoruichi-san." His voice was full of worry. One thing Yoruichi could appreciate about Tessai was his general concern for another person's well being. Yoruichi looked closely at the girl.

"She's very beautiful." She stated simply. She was being honest. Yoruichi might be a grown woman, but she had no qualms pointing out the girls nice features. Tessai smiled and nodded.

"You should have seen Renji staring at her earlier today. Ichigo came by this afternoon, and when he stopped in to check on her, Renji came with him. He couldn't stop staring at her. Ichigo called him on it, and they brawled right here in the room until Urahara kicked them out." He chuckled softly to himself. Yoruichi grinned again.

"I bet he did. With those tattoos, it should have been a given that his eyes would be glued to her. I'm certain he's never seen anything like her." She glanced down at the girl and appraised her body art. The one on her chest that had been previously obscured by her shirt was now clearly visible. A vibrant lotus flower, surrounded by green foliage and other bursts of color. The tattoo covering her upper arm was made of flowers as well, though Yoruichi couldn't be sure what kinds of flowers they were. Her tattoo on her side was no longer visible due to the bandaging, but when Yoruichi had been helping to clean the girl up, she had seen it. Two large peaceful Koi fish in what appeared to be violent waters. There were some cherry blossoms artfully placed throughout the tattoo, and the edges of it were surrounded by some kind of design that Yoruichi had never seen before but she supposed it meant something to the girl. She had also taken note to a particularly nasty scar on the girl's neck and wondered what it was from. She sighed lightly and touched Tessai's shoulder again.

"Can I get you anything Tessai?" She paused as he looked at her. "You've been here for almost two days straight, are you hungry? Can I make you some tea?" He smiled up at her.

"Tea would be lovely. Thank you Yoruichi." He turned back to the girl and she walked out of the room.

******* 2 days later*****

Azami stirred in her bed slightly. Her head was pounding, and her whole body was aching. Even the slightest movement made her groan in pain. She attempted to open her eyes, but it felt as though her eyelids were weighed down. She wasn't dead; she knew that, because she knew what would have happened if she had died…it had happened to her before after all. She tried to open her eyes again, and finally succeeded, but much to her dismay, everything was blurry. She blinked a few times, and things seemed to lighten up. She did it again, and she could see almost as clearly as she normally could. Moving her head to the right, and then to the left, Azami took in her surroundings. She was on a flat, white bed in the middle of the room, from what she could tell. She instantly noticed that she was NOT in a hospital, which, by all rights, is where she thought she should have been after taking a hit from that monster…So what the hell was going on? Where was she? A house? Not okay. She didn't want to be locked in the house of whatever good Samaritan had found her on the street… What kind of weirdo takes the injured girl home, instead of to the hospital? Someone who wanted to play doctor? Sick.

She looked at her hands; one of them was bandaged across the palm. She touched the back of her head silently. There was a huge bump underneath her hair, and she assumed correctly, that it was the cause of her throbbing headache. She remembered smacking her head on the pavement when she had slipped and fell…lovely.

She then looked down at her torso, and was stunned by what she saw. First of all, her clothes were gone. She wore a pair of black linen pants, in the place of her jeans… Who had dressed her in those!? Her t-shirt was gone too…great. Her torso, from her hips, upwards over her chest, and up to about 5 inches below her collar bone, was wrapped in white bandages. She had never seen anything like it. It almost looked primitive, her stomach churned. Azami had seen a lot of gruesome things growing up with a surgeon as a father, but she had never, in her entire life, seen someone bandaged in the manner she was now. She _had_ been taken in by some creep that didn't know what they were doing. Didn't they know they could kill her if she didn't get proper care? Azami tended to minimize things, simply because she was never one to overreact, but she knew she had taken a serious hit from that Hollow, and whoever had her pent up in their house must've seen that too. She confirmed her resolve silently in her head. She really had only one choice. She had to escape, and get herself to a real hospital, no matter how badly it hurt. Obviously they had left her in her room alone, so she didn't think it would be hard to get out of the house, and even if she didn't make it to the hospital, she could at least make it into the street. It was daylight outside; she could see that through the blinds in her room. Someone was bound to see her if she could make it into the street. She swallowed quietly, and pushed herself up in the bed.

The pain was bad…really bad. She clutched her stomach and hung her head for a minute before taking a deep breath in and pushing herself up onto her feet. She stumbled on the first few steps towards the door. She shook her head in an attempt to clear it, and surprisingly, she felt better. Her adrenaline was flowing now, and it was helping to ebb the pain and sharpen her mind.

She walked to the door, slid it open silently, and peeked through the small gap she had created between the door and the frame. There didn't appear to be anyone around. She opened it a little farther and stuck her head out the door. Nothing. She squeezed out, and walked down the hall, slowly; she wasn't able to move very fast without feeling a pull at the skin around her wound. She wasn't sure how to get out of the house…and she wasn't really sure that she was in a house anymore. She saw boxes of merchandise everywhere, and all kinds of odd things on shelves throughout the large room she had just entered, was she in a store? The situation just continued to freak her out more and more, she quickened her pace, but was stopped short by the tearing pain in her abdomen. She gasped and grabbed at her stomach, and nearly doubled over in agony. She put her arm on the wall for support, and braced herself as she stood up again. She made her way, again, slowly, down the hall, until she reached a large dining room, with a decently sized table in the middle of the floor. There was an ornate tea set laid out decoratively in the middle of the table. She walked past the table and heard something. Someone was coming down the hall way behind her, and she had nowhere to hide. Ignoring the pain, she made her way to the next room quickly.

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Renji walked towards the unknown girl's room. He didn't know what it was, but something about the girl bothered him. He couldn't seem to get through the day without checking on her, even if it was just to glance into her room. He had to make sure he did it discreetly though, as not to be called out by Ichigo, or any of the other household members… Ridiculing him about his draw to the girl was everyone's favorite hobby this week.

Over the last few days, she had begun to heal nicely, but it would be a few more weeks before she was back to normal, Tessai had told him that. Renji wished he could have been upset about that, and still been annoyed with the fact that she was there, like he was the night Ichigo had dragged her into the shop. Somehow he couldn't though, and he was glad she was going to be staying for a few weeks. He had been so bored lately, that the thought of getting to know the mysterious human girl with the tattoos seemed like a nice way to fill his time….he scoffed at the thought. What the hell was he thinking? _All I need is another attachment to the human world, _he thought sarcastically. No, he definitely didn't need that, maybe he should distance himself from the girl? Eh, it didn't matter now, he hadn't even spoken a word to her yet… He would worry about it later.

Urahara, Chad, Yoruichi and the rest of the shop's residents were downstairs, working on something they had started after he and Chad had ended training for the day. Soon Ichigo, Rukia, Ikkaku, Yumichika, Toshiro and Rangiku were all supposed to come over for tea and an informational meeting. He was looking forward to seeing what Ikkaku would be wearing today. Perhaps a yellow shirt covered in hearts and rainbows? He snickered at the thought. As he walked down the hallway to the woman's room, he couldn't help but notice that he didn't feel her as he normally did. She didn't have a particularly strong reiatsu, obviously,  
but it was distinct, just like everyone else's, and he had grown accustomed to it in the last four days. His pace quickened and before he even reached the door, he knew she was gone. He examined the entry way to her room. The door had been slid open, and her bed was empty. He inhaled quickly and set off down the hall. She couldn't be moving very fast, it was nearly impossible in her condition. He thought he heard a dull noise, something similar to a shuffle, coming from the dining room, and headed off in that direction. The room was empty when he finally reached it, but he heard more noise coming from the kitchen and followed it there.

What he saw when he arrived in the room shocked him.

It was the girl, leaning against the counter, holding one of Tessai's cooking knives in her hand. Her gaze was fierce as it met his, and for the first time since she was brought into the house, he saw her eyes. They were green, violently green. More than that though, they were angry…REALLY angry. He could tell she was in pain. She used the counter for support and was slightly hunched over, her other hand splayed over her injured stomach. When she finally spoke, she spat her words.

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"Who the HELL are you?" Was all that Azami could think to say to the young man in front of her. He had walked in seconds before, obviously looking for her. He must've heard her walk into the room, or grab the knife from the drawer. It wasn't easy to be discreet when you felt as though you'd been ripped in half.

The man before her looked to be no older then 24 or 25, and had shocking red hair that was pulled up into a ponytail. He wore some kind of white bandana around his head. He had sharp black tribal tattoos on his face, neck and arms. He wore a pair of blue jeans with an odd shirt that had the words "red pineapple" printed across it. He carried a fierce look on his face, and though Azami would never admit it, or let him see it, she was frightened. The man looked strong, and she was certainly in no physical condition to be defend herself. She raised the knife threateningly.

"I asked you a question. Who the hell are you?" She stared defiantly at him, "Where am I, and why the hell am I here?" A look of shock crossed the tattooed mans face. As though he had just figured out what was happening. He put his hands up with his palms out, in a display of surrender, trying to display to her that he meant no harm, his face softened, and he spoke.

"Whoa, calm down. We're just trying to help you…" He took a step forward, and she raised the knife higher. She glared angrily at him.

"There's no need to talk to me like I'm a child. Tell me what the hell is going on. I want to know why I'm here and not in a hospital, and if you come one step closer, I swear on my father's grave I'll make you regret it."

The girl had an attitude, and Renji had to admit, he found it entertaining. Had he not been so worried about the girl collapsing at any second, he would've commended her for her defiance. As it were though, the girl WAS still badly injured, and she was looking worse by the minute.

"Do you remember what happened to you the other night?" He asked gruffly. She looked confused, and a short lived look of pain crossed her face, but she quickly swapped it out for her scowl. "The other night, something…attacked you?" He was prompting her to finish the story for him. He didn't know if she had seen the Hollow or not. Since she had been running from it, he assumed that she could, but was denying so he wouldn't think she was crazy. She looked questioningly at him, and the knife lowered an inch.

"What kind of 'thing' are you talking about?" She snapped back. He shrugged nonchalantly and relaxed against the wall behind him, putting his hands in his pockets. Obviously being kind to the girl would get him nowhere, so he would just try and speak to her like he would with anyone else. He could see his sudden display of relaxation set her off, and unnerve her. Her eyes narrowed and her body stiffened. "I don't know what you're talking about." She stated simply, he grinned at her.

"I think you know exactly what I'm talking about." He attempted to take another step towards her, and she raised the knife again…She was serious about stabbing him if he came any closer to her. He took another step. "Are you really gonna stab me? Can you just put that down for a minute, and I can explain everything to you?" She looked terrible. The girl slid another foot closer to the door. Renji was worried, and took another step towards her. She stiffened and stood straight up instantly. He saw her wince and lower her head as she cried out quietly, gripping her stomach. She straightened and took a defensive position. As soon as her hand was away from her stomach he saw it the red stain seeping through her bandages. She had put too much strain on her injury, and some part of it had reopened. He sighed and pointed at her stomach.

"You reopened your wound." He motioned to it, and she didn't even look down at it.

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"Yeah, thanks, I could feel that." She stated simply, she slid along the counter again, one step closer to the door. She had to make her move and get out of the house soon, or she would collapse talking to this asshole. She didn't know why he kept asking her questions about her attack. She wasn't going to tell him anything. He would think she was crazy, and she would deny seeing the monster until the end if it meant that she didn't have to spend her life in the mental ward of some state hospital. He followed her with his eyes, and she slid another foot down the counter towards the door. Her reserve and strength were both fading quickly. "Will you please just let me go?" Her voice was strained, she was pleading with him. She was running out of time, and if begging was what got her the farthest with this man, then so be it. The look he gave after that statement surprised her. Concern and confusion?

He took another step towards her and she slid another foot closer to the door. She was really frightened now. Who was this guy? He wasn't acting as though he wanted to hurt her, and her instinct was telling her he was not a threat. In the end however, her mind won out, and her mind was telling her she needed to try and get out of this house, as soon as possible.

Was she going to cry? This girl, who had just threatened to stab him if he didn't back off? She must've been getting really desperate. She slid another foot down the counter, and he took another step forward. What the hell were Urahara and the rest of them doing down in the basement that was taking them so long!? Shouldn't someone have come up here to help him with this by now? He looked at her face. She sighed heavily, and her eyes lolled slightly as she blinked. She was fading, fast, and the knife was slipping from her hand. She slid towards the door again and bowed her head in pain.

Azami could tell that she had him distracted with her sudden show of emotion and open displays of pain, which, she couldn't entirely hide anymore. She _was_ in pain. A considerable amount of it too. He stepped back as he saw a few tears fall from her eyes. She bowed her head slowly, and while he was obviously confused at what to do with the crying girl, and then she did it, bolted for the door, as fast as her fading legs could carry her. She ignored the incredible pain in her abdomen and reached for the handle, tore it open and took two steps onto the deck of the shop before hitting something, hard. No, not something…someone? She tried to right herself and push around the person, but she was weak, and clumsy, and the man already had her by her upper arms, steadying her on her feet. She shook her head and cleared her eyes before looking at the man. Bright orange hair, he looked to be about 18, and…was he wearing Shinigami robes? She stared up at him, confused, but relieved. A Shinigami wouldn't hurt her.

"Shinigami?" She whispered quietly before finally giving up and collapsing in the strangers arms.


	4. Chapter 4

Okie dokie!

So Renji and Azami have now officially met, and this is the aftermath of their meeting in the kitchen. I had a great time writing this part of the story, and I hope everyone enjoys it!

Don't forget to review. PLEASE!

_**Chapter 4**_

"Jesus, Renji!" Was all the red head heard as Ichigo carried the limp body of the girl back into her room. "Tessai!" Ichigo yelled again. "We need your help!" He laid her down on the bed. "What the hell did you do to her?" Renji scowled at him.

"Hey, baka! Your buddy Urahara and his gang left her up here to wake up by herself. She was freaking out! Blame them. I just tried to keep her from running off!" He gestured at Ichigo in a rude manner as Tessai came bursting through the door. Renji explained what had happened in the kitchen, and everyone understood immediately; she had been scared. Yoruichi smirked at him from across the room as Renji talked about the girls temper, as if she knew something he didn't. Tessai hovered over her, and Yoruichi shooed them out of the room so she could change the bandages again.

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When they returned, the girl was just waking up. She glanced around groggily, and her eyes widened in shock at the amount of people around her, she sat up suddenly and scrambled back to the head of the bed, gasping in pain as she moved so suddenly. She looked frightened for a fleeting moment, and then her temper returned.

"What the hell is going on here!?" She said loudly. Renji watched her look at Ichigo, who was still in shinigami form; she could definitely see souls, that was clear. She lifted her finger and pointed at the teenager. "I know _what_ he is." She stated it simply. She had obviously met one of them before. "But who are all of you people?" She said motioning around the room. She kept her angry eyes on Renji for a moment; he sighed and crossed his arms.

"We're the people that saved your ass after that Hollow attacked you." He said sharply. Didn't she understand what was going on here? They had saved her life, and here she was, being as rude as possible to all of them. "You should be lucky we pulled your ass out of the snow and brought you here in the first place."

"I wasn't really asking you." She snapped back. God, she aggravated him. Ichigo stifled a chuckle while Renji approached the side of her bed and glared at her angrily. She continued icily. "If you had wanted me to know who _you_ were, then you should have just told me in the kitchen, instead of playing guessing games and intimidating me." She crossed her arms over her chest and shot a defiant look up at him. His eyes narrowed angrily and he started in on her immediatly.

"YOU were the one with the knife, threatening to stab ME. How was I the one using intimidation tactics?" He was leaning over her bedside now. She shifted her weight onto her knees, wincing, and straightened herself up slowly until she was kneeling on the bed inches from him. Tessai's hands shot out, there for her, in case she were to collapse, and he glared angrily up at the red head for provoking the girl.

"Listen buddy, I don't know who you think you are…" She was jabbing him in the chest with her right pointer finger, "but I'm fairly certain waking up in a stranger's house, after being attacked by a Hollow, warrants a little bit of an overreaction. Had you told me you were associated with the Shinigami from the start, I might not have tried to run, OR hurt you." Her voice carried such a violent edge to it, that even Renji was surprised. He had managed to hide that though, and instead glared back at her.

"Lady, I'm not associated with the Shinigami, I AM a Shinigami." He pointed at himself and threw in a satisfactory grin. Her eyes went wide, and her look softened, before she promptly responded.

"Forgive me," She seemed serious, and surprise overtook Renji for a moment, he hadn't been expecting an apology. She smiled up at him and continued. "I didn't know a Shinigami could be such a moronic jackass." Ichigo burst out laughing, nearly doubling over. Renji looked furious, and slowly backed away from the bed. If he didn't get away from her, he knew he would do something stupid. He glared at the girl. She had a huge smirk on her face. He scowled as Urahara finally spoke.

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"You'll have to excuse Renji. He can be a bit…..rough around the edges," the mysterious man at her side stated. His hair was blonde, and hung shaggily below the odd green hat that was obscuring his face. He spoke again. "So Miss, uh…" He paused. "I'm afraid we haven't heard your name yet. I'm Kisuke Urahara, proprietor of this shop." He motioned to everyone else in the room. "This is Tessai, the man responsible for your healing," He waved at the man behind him. Azami thought he resembled a brick wall…The bespectacled man was huge, but seemed incredibly gentle for his size. She smiled at him, a small thank you, in her own way, for saving her life. "Yoruichi Shihouin, who has been watching over you and helping replace your bandages from day to day." A look of relief crossed her face. At least it had been another woman doing _that_ for her. Yoruichi, grinned at her and gave her a nod, as if to say _'You're welcome_'. The woman was stunning, Azami couldn't think of any other way to describe her. She was tall and athletically built; she had beautiful dark skin; black hair, with a tint of purple in it, and striking, yellow-green eyes. Urahara continued and pointed to the orange haired Shinigami on the opposite wall, "This is Ichigo Kurosaki," He motioned towards the redhead too, "And Renji Abarai, the two Shinigami that took you from the Hollow and brought you here." She shot Ichigo a look of thanks, and Ichigo smiled back at her. She looked at Renji thoughtfully for a moment, and then her eyes turned back onto Urarhara. The blonde man held out his hand to shake hers…He honestly seemed harmless enough. They all did now. She took it lightly.

"I'm Azami Donelly." She paused after stating her name. "Where exactly am I? How long have I been here?" She asked quietly. She was still reeling from the fact that she had been taken in by a group of Shinigami. It was confusing, from what she had gathered from her conversations with Saita; there was one Shinigami per town, and here she was with at least two of them. She wasn't sure about the other three in human clothes, but she _felt_ they were as strong as the two young men in her room. The man named Urahara smiled widely and spoke again.

"Oh, my apologies Miss Azami! You are currently residing in the Urahara Shop, in Karakura Town, and you have been here for 4 days." He looked out from under his hat at her. She suddenly stiffened as a stray thought crossed her mind. _Crap_. She thought as her hands shot up to her long lengths of hair, and a crazed look crossed her face.

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"Oh my god! Finals! What day of the week is it!?" Her eyes were wide as she looked around the room frantically. Ichigo stepped forward.

"Its…uh, Tuesday afternoon." He stated simply. She pulled at her hair. Was everyone else as worried about this girl's mental stability as Renji was? She looked like she was going to have a breakdown any moment now.

"Shit! It's my last year at University! I can't miss my winter finals, I won't graduate!" She was scrambling to get off of the bed again, completely ignoring the pain. It was funny, upon first impressions; Renji would not have pegged her for the studious type. Everyone in the room was obviously thinking the same thing, and they watched with wide eyes as she made it two steps from the bed before nearly tumbling over. Renji steadied her by her shoulders, and she looked up at him immediately, for a fleeting moment, she looked confused, as if she just didn't understand him, then her expression turned into a glare as he pushed her back a sitting position on the bed.

"You're not going anywhere, unless you want to do it in two separate pieces. You were nearly cut in half if you didn't notice." Renji felt as though he was scolding a child, and he nearly laughed when she responded in exactly that way, crossing her arms over her chest, and pouting slightly. She winced in pain as she raised her right hand, and rubbed her face furiously. She was contemplating her situation; Renji could tell that by the look of concentration on her face.

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Azami pondered her current position. She was stuck here, she knew that much. It certainly seemed that she was safe with these people, and that no one wanted to hurt her. Her finals were due this week though, and she had been working her ass off since her father's death to get herself into medical school, she wasn't about to let this injury cause her to fail in her final year before med school… Hell no, she couldn't let that happen. She sighed exasperatedly and ran her fingers through her tangled hair. Azami turned to the shopkeeper, and spoke.

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"Fine, I'll stay, but on one condition." She stated bluntly. Judging by everyone's shocked expressions, Renji was pretty certain that they were as surprised as he was that she had given in so easily. She closed her eyes as she repositioned herself on the bed, and Renji could tell her energy was fading again. "Someone needs to help me get to my apartment, so that I can pick some things up. My own clothes, my laptop, so that I can hopefully send in my finals… I don't think I can handle staying here without some of my personal belongings." She finished and reclined in the bed again. She looked drained. Renji couldn't say he was surprised. It would have been hard for a shinigami to go through getting an injury like that and having the day she'd had…and she was only a human. He looked down at Urahara's shadowed face, and Yoruichi spoke out from the corner of the room.

"Azami, if you think you're strong enough to handle being awake for a few more hours, I'll help you get bathed and bandaged while everyone is here for the meeting. Afterwards, I'll have Renji and another one of our friends take you back to Oita to collect your things. Will that work for you?" the girl nodded at Yoruichi who smiled back at her in response. Renji's whole body stiffened… Had Yoruichi really just volunteered him to take the human across town? He was pretty sure that the girls distaste for him had been obvious to everyone in the room, and Shihoiun had just forced the job upon him anyway. He turned on her as she walked out the door.

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Azami watched the red haired Shinigami's eyes widen as the suggestion left Yoruichi's mouth. He was livid, she could tell that from his expression, and the fact that the energy around him had changed. She could feel some kind of force coming off of all of them, as if they were surrounded by some electric current, but each felt different in their own way. While everyone else's was flowing pleasantly, his had just spiked, and she could almost feel his anger. She looked down at her hands while he finally spoke.

"Do you really think that's a good idea? It's pretty obvious that we don't get along very well." He was spitting his words. Azami was getting angry. It was going to be hard enough to deal with living in this place for two weeks and even harder with one of the residents already hating her. She clenched her fists and bit her tongue as Yoruichi spoke up.

"Renji, you're more than welcome to leave and find another place to stay if I am asking too much of you…" Yoruichi paused and Renji's face went red, "However, if you would like to continue staying in the shop, I suggest you do this favor for us." She promptly walked out the door and Renji stormed after her. Urahara let out a nervous chuckle at her side, and Azami glanced at him questioningly.

"As I told you Miss Azami… He's rough around the edges. Yoruichi will be back soon to help you get cleaned up, in the mean time, I have guests to attend to. Please feel free to let me know if you need anything." He stood and bowed before sweeping out of the room. Ichigo approached her next.

"Well Azami, I'll see you soon, though I might not be here when the meeting is over. I have other places I need to go…" He paused and grinned at her. "If you can get past Renji's horrible manners and bad attitude, you might actually like him." She scoffed aloud at his statement, and he grinned even wider. "See you around." He exited the room, and Tessai walked to her bedside.

"Miss Azami, I will need a block of at least 4 hours to work on your healing tonight," Her eyes widened at his statement. She still didn't know exactly _what _they had been doing to her over the past four days, and she was a little frightened find out. He smiled kindly at her and continued. "You don't need to worry, its painless, you can probably sleep through it if you want. Shall we just begin after you return from Oita?" He gave her an unsure glance and she smiled slightly in response and nodded.

"Thank you Tessai, for everything you've done for me." She tried to look as sincere as possible. She _was_ grateful, but still a little dazed. He smiled at her and stood to leave as Yoruichi re-entered the room.

"Well, are you ready for a bath? Do you think you can handle me being in the bathroom and helping you?" She sounded serious, as though she really didn't want to impose on Azami's privacy. Azami looked at her areas of exposed skin. Based strictly on appearances, she looked clean, but her skin felt sticky, as though she had been sweating. She grimaced and ran a hand through her hair. Gross. She was fairly certain there was still caked blood in the mess of dark brunette waves. She looked at Yoruichi with an indifferent expression.

"I don't care who gets to see me naked as long as I can wash my hair. This is disgusting." She pulled at a knot of her dark tresses. Yourichi laughed and held out her left arm. Azami straightened herself on the bed, and stood up, with support from Yoruichi, and slid her arm over the beautiful woman shoulders as they shuffled out of the room.

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Renji stalked towards the kitchen with the same murderous expression he had worn when leaving the girls bedroom. Yoruichi had more nerve than he had thought, putting him in a position where he had to take care of a human that clearly disdained him. He reached the kitchen to see Yumichika and Ikkaku staring at him while sitting at the table on the floor. When Yumichicka got a good look at Renji's face he sighed loudly.

"Renji, why are you always angry? You look so hideous with that expression on your face…" He drifted off and placed his chin on the palm of his open hand and gazed out the window. Renji scoffed aloud and sat down next to Ikkaku at the table. Ikkaku looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

"What the hell has you so irate? Did the shopkeeper make you sweep the front lot again?" Ikkaku grinned to himself. Renji raised his head angrily and went to speak, but was cut off by another voice.

"I'll tell you what's got him so pissed. He was told off by a girl…A human girl, no less." Ichigo came striding into the room and took a seat next to Yumichicka, who looked uninterested in the whole conversation. Ikkaku, on the other hand, was looking at Ichigo with mild excitement. Renji assumed that since he had been the brunt of jokes due to the clothes his "girlfriend" was putting him in, that he was thrilled to see another one of his fellow shinigami get humiliated. Renji clenched his fists under the table.

"You remember how I mentioned that human girl that we brought from that fight in Oita on Friday?" Ikkaku and Yumichicka nodded. "Well she woke up today, and Renji got the pleasure of being the first to meet her." They looked questioningly at the teenage, but when Ichigo opened his mouth to speak again, Renji held up his hand to shut him up. Renji decided he should continue the story.

"I went to go check on her, and see if she was okay, and she wasn't in the room. So I walked out to the kitchen, and what do I find, but the human girl, standing against the kitchen counter, angry as hell and holding a knife." Ikkaku looked interested now, as did Yumichicka. "So I told her to put the knife down, so that I could explain what was going on. She pretty much told me to go screw myself…" Ikkaku scoffed at his side. Renji continued. "So then she starts trying to get out of the kitchen, and threatens to stab me. By this point she's reopened her wound, is bleeding again and for some reason she decides to make a dash for the door, fucking herself up even worse. On her way out, she runs into this asshole, and blacks out on the front porch." He motioned over at Ichigo, who was, for some reason, still smirking at him.

"You left out the best part." Ichigo stated bluntly. He turned to Ikkaku and Yumichicka, who were now humorously entertained by the story about the human. "She wakes up after I take her back inside, and confirms that she can see all of us, and Hollows. Then she calls Renji out for not just telling her who he was in the kitchen, and the whole time she's up in bed, jabbing him in the chest with her finger." He paused and grinned again. "Then, when he tells her that he actually _is_ a shinigami, she says "Oh, forgive me, I didn't know a Shinigami could be such a moronic jackass!" and then just sits back down on the bed like nothing had happened." Ichigo was nearly rolling in laughter, Yumichicka was grinning, and Ikkaku guffawed before slapping Renji on the back. Renji's fists were clenched under the table again, and he was fairly certain his face was as red as his hair. Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, someone else spoke up.

"Who said that to Renji? I want to meet her." He looked to the door to see a grinning Rukia staring directly at him. Renji gave up, and buried his face in his hands, and rubbed it furiously. Of all the people to hear that, it had to be Rukia… Now he would never live it down.

"Look. It's not my fault the human is crazy and has an insane temper! Now I have to haul her ass all of the way back to Oita so she can drag a bunch of her shit back to the shop…" He looked up at Rukia, his eyes narrowed and her smile widened as Matsumoto and Toshiro filed into the shop behind her. Rukia opened her mouth to speak, but Urahara stepped into the room before any words left her mouth.

"Wonderful, everyone is here. We can now begin our meeting. Tessai is making tea; in the mean time, let's discuss what has happened in the last week…"


	5. Chapter 5, and an apology to my readers

A/N: Hi Guys! I just wanted to write everyone who's been favoriting (if that's a word) and story alerting Irezumi a little note.

I know I started this story with the promise of constant updates and stuff, but I had some things happen in my personal life that made it difficult for me to write and update. My boyfriend of almost 4 years and I split up, because he's an asshole, and I wanted out. Oddly enough I was feeling a little jaded, and unable to write a romantical fanfic. Weird huh? SO! Even though I had all of the chapters up until the 10th written, I was in no mood to post, and I really didn't want to screw anything up because I was in a bad mood, so I took a break.

Do not fear though! I'm back to normal now after a couple months, and she be posting and writing on a regular basis. So to anyone who comes back to read, I adore you! I hope you enjoy the next chapter, and let me preface it with this.

The beginning of this chapter takes place between Yoruichi and Azami, while Yoruichi helps Azami bathe. It is, in no way, meant to be sexual. Yoru is just helping Azami in her time of need, OKAY!?

Does anyone remember the episode of Bleach where Orihime is having major issues with Rukia and Ichigo's relationship, and she's talking to Matsumoto about them, and Matsumoto comes out of the bathroom buck naked and hugs Orihime and after talking her through her emotional debacle, proceeds to tickle her? Well, if you look past the naked tickling, you know that Matsu was just helping Orihime out, and it wasn't meant to be anything else… except fan service for millions of boys? Well this is similar, minus the fan service part…

That being said, have you ever wondered what would happen if three of our favorite male Shinigami rode in a taxi?

Enjoy!

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Azami sat in the bathtub of the decent sized bathroom, her eyes trained straight ahead of her, on the tile wall. She had her knees pulled up to her chest, and was leaning forward, Yoruichi was helping her wash her back. Azami thought that Yoruichi had done a very good job of making her feel comfortable. She had let Azami undress on her own, though she had needed help with the bandages, and then simply helped her into the bath. She had offered to help wash Azami's hair and back, but had allowed Azami to clean the rest of herself while she waited outside. Azami had already taken a liking the striking woman.

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"Azami…" Yoruichi paused. "Do you mind if I ask you some questions?" She passed the sponge over Azamis back. Azami moved her head to look at the woman, and nodded silently.

"Just about yourself, I feel like I should get to know you a little better if you'll be staying here for a little while." She smiled warmly at Azami, and then began talking again. "Let's start with something easy…Your tattoos, what do they mean?" Azami smiled lightly and loosened her arms around her knees. She lifted her right arm, with the half sleeve and began talking.

"These are my parent's birth flowers." She said, looking down sadly at the large tattoo. "It was my first large piece; I got it shortly after their deaths." Yoruichi looked at the piece and nodded. She held out her wrists, and Yoruichi looked at the black lettering there. "These say music and love, in Gaelic, my dad was a full blooded Irishman from the United States. He made it a point that I had the same appreciation for music that he did." Azami smiled lovingly at the tattoos. She motioned to her chest piece, of the lotus flower, which you could just barely see over the tops of her knees. "This one is based more on my struggle after they passed away. I had a very difficult time with their deaths… The lotus flower starts in the darkest areas of the water, down in the silt and mud, but continues to reach for the sun until it comes to the surface, and blossoms into a beautiful flower… I'm sure you can catch the symbolism." Yoruichi nodded and grinned at her. Azami couldn't help but smile back. Finally she used one of her hands to motion to the large tattoo on her side. "This one is a crossing of both halves of my heritage. The koi fish, for my mother's Japanese side, and the Celtic knots commemorate my father's Irish heritage. They both symbolize courage and strength." She sighed and returned her arm to drape over her knees. "I guess that's it…" She faded off as Yoruichi wrung out the sponge and set it on the side of the tub.

"Well, they're all very beautiful. They suit you well." Yoruichi stood and grabbed a towel from the bar on the wall. "Are you ready to get out and head home to get your things? The meeting will be over soon." Azami nodded and Yoruichi returned to the side of the tub, helping her out and handing her the towel before walking to the door. "I left your clothes on the counter here. I rummaged through my things to find something I thought you would be comfortable in." She placed her hand on the pile of clothes while Azami sat wrapped in her towel on the covered toilet seat, wringing out her hair. "If you need any help, I'll be right outside the door, just say the word." She smiled and Azami muttered a thank you to her on her way out.

She leaned over, grabbing the jeans left in a pile near the sink. She pulled them up her legs slowly, wincing slightly. Finally she had to use the support of the counter to get off the toilet and stand to fully pull them on. She grabbed bra that Yoruichi had lent her off of the counter and looked at it with wide eyes… There was no way she would fill _that_ up. She was by no means flat chested…but damn, she certainly wasn't Yoruichi's size either. She slipped it on silently, trying to move as little as possible. She was surprised, it was a little large, but not a horrible fit. She stood slowly and turned to look at herself in the mirror. She was a bit paler than she usual, which made her hair look even darker than normal. It was shiny and clean again, and her heavy tresses hung down in slight waves around her face and past her shoulders to the middle of her back. Then she looked at the scar on her neck…That damn thing, she wished she could get rid of it somehow. She finally looked down at her stomach. It looked awful. The large gash was bright red and higher than the rest of her skin and it hardly looked as though any of it had healed at all. She cringed to think of what it must've looked like immediately after the attack. Black and blue bruises mottled her entire midsection. She touched it lightly with her fingers and gasped; it horribly sensitive. She stood hunched over, staring at the reflection of her stomach for what felt like hours. Finally, a voice outside the door woke her from her self induced hypnosis.

"Azami, Are you okay? Are you ready for me to wrap your bandages now?" It was Yoruichi, a slight tone of worry in her voice. Azami looked down at the counter and spoke.

"Yeah, I'm ready. Come in." She used to counter top to ease herself back onto the toilet, and grunted quietly when she finally sat down. Yoruichi set supplies she had brought with her on the counter and turned to Azami.

"You should be fine if you stay sitting, I'm going to clean the area around it first, then we'll get you wrapped up, and I'll help you with your shirt… I imagine pulling it over your head will be difficult on your own." Azami nodded silently. She was beginning to get tired, but she knew she could rest as soon as she was done at her apartment. She clenched her jaw as she thought of having to take a cab across town with the red head …She felt and sharp, painful sensation on her abdomen and hissed loudly. Yoruichi smiled up at her apologetically.

"Sorry, I should have warned you when I got close you your wound. This antiseptic does seem to sting a bit…" She drifted off as she wiped the area around Azami's laceration. Azami sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"Don't worry about it. It has to be done, I just wasn't paying attention, and I should have been ready for _some_ pain." Azami sighed and attempted to sit up straight as Yoruichi began to wrap the long white bandages around her midsection.

******************

The meeting was over, and the only people left at the table with Renji were Yumichika, Ikkaku, and Rukia. Yoruichi was still with the human girl, and Urahara had disappeared, as per usual, to go 'take care of something'. Tessai was in the kitchen with the kids washing dishes and starting dinner. Renji sighed and rested his chin on his palm lazily. Soon his friends would leave, and he would be stuck with the task of dragging the human girl back to her apartment… Urahara had said that they would take a "cab" because in the girl's weak state, it would be foolish to use Shunpo to carry her there. Renji assumed that it was some kind of modern transportation… He wasn't really looking forward to the trip. Rukia punched him on the arm before finally speaking.

"What's got you so down Renji? Are you really that afraid of the human girl that wounded your pride?" She smirked at him and took a sip of her tea. Ikkaku grinned but Yumichika looked uninterested as always. Renji glared at Rukia angrily. Were they really going to start digging into him again about this again? He was about to retort when he heard footsteps from down the hall, and two female voices, casually chatting. Everyone around the table turned so that they could finally see the human girl with the supposedly foul temper.

Azami stepped into the room with her right arm draped over Yoruichi's shoulders. She seemed as though she was supporting all of her weight on Yoruichi, but, of course, Shihoin looked as though she were carrying a 5-pound bag of flour as opposed to a 22 year old woman. Azami was wearing a short sleeve, grey, cotton scoop neck t-shirt. Her chest piece and half sleeve were visible, and her hair and face were finally clean. Her green eyes were bright against her long dark hair and fair skin. She grinned tiredly at everyone seated around the table as she shuffled into the room. It was the first time Renji had seen her smile, and she was, for lack of a better word… attractive. He mentally slapped himself for the thought. He looked at Rukia, who was smiling back at Azami warmly. Ikkaku was grinning at her like a rabid wolf, while Yumichika looked pleasantly surprised, and muttered "lovely" under his breath. Renji rolled his eyes. Sure, she was great to look at, but to interact with? He felt as though he'd rather take his chances in a round with Kenpachi. Rukia extended her small hand to the girl.

"You must be Azami. I'm Rukia Kuchiki, it's great to finally meet you." Azami bent over with help from Yoruichi and shook her hand gently. Yoruichi helped lower her on the floor to sit at the table, and Azami moaned slightly on her way down.

"Hello everyone." She gave a small wave with her free hand as she inched closer to the floor. When she was finally sitting, she reached out and poured herself a cup of tea.

Azami inspected the people around her. There was an extremely well groomed, attractive man with dark hair sitting across from her. He wore some kind of colorful decoration on his right eye; next to him was another man, with a fierce smile and a bald head. He had two small red tattoos at the corners of his eyes, which accentuated his ferocious look. There was the brooding red head, Renji…who wasn't looking in her direction, or acknowledging her in any way. Then, next to him, was the small girl who had greeted her warmly when she had entered the room. Rukia Kuchiki. She had black hair that reached her shoulders, ivory skin, and large, vibrant, violet eyes. She was positively lovely. The bald man spoke shortly after she took her seat.

"I'm Ikkaku Madarame, this is Yumichika Asegawa." He shoved his thumb in the direction of the dark haired man, who, in turn, held his hand out to Azami, she took it lightly and he smiled at her.

"From what Renji had told us about your interaction with him earlier, I was expecting to meet someone completely repulsive; I'm glad to see I was mistaken." He smiled at her and she displayed a look of slight confusion and offense to his remark. Renji sighed and looked over at her.

"That's a compliment coming from him. Don't get offended by anything he says. You'll know when he's insulting you. Trust me." She glanced at Renji and smiled softly; he looked shocked at her kind expression, and then turned away from her again.

"So Renji was mentioning earlier that you need some extra help getting some things from your apartment? Mind if Yumichika and I help out? We have some extra time to kill before we have to head back to where we're crashing." Ikkaku stated roughly. She nodded while taking another drink of tea. Despite his appearance, she was hardly intimidated by him, or any of the other warriors she had met in the last 4 hours.

"Thanks, I would appreciate that. I don't have much to bring, but I'm hardly in a state to be carting things back and forth between Oita and the shop. Besides, I'm going to need help getting around; I've kinda worn myself out today…" She drifted off and displayed a lopsided smile before running her hand through her hair. Rukia grinned at her side.

"Well, you shouldn't need to worry about that. Renji will be there too," She elbowed him in the ribs and continued, "So with the three of them, you should be set." Rukia brushed back the piece of hair that dangled in the middle of her face, only to have it bounce right back into place immediately. Azami grinned slightly at the girl. She liked these other Shinigami already. Rukia smiled back and began talking again. "I have to go meet up with Orihime, but it was a pleasure to meet you Azami. I'll see you later this week I'm sure. I come by the shop a lot." She stood up and brushed off her light blue dress before waving goodbye to everyone and leaving through the front door. Azami noticed that Renji looked mildly disappointed by her departure.

She examined his face. He was a good looking man. Hell, he was a _great_ looking man. He was tall, in fantastic shape, and covered with tattoos. With his shocking red hair and his fierce expression…he was just the type of guy that Azami would have gone after normally. She noted however, that her attempts to be pleasant with him were going relatively unnoticed. Evidently he was holding a grudge against her for her "episode" earlier. She shook it off, she could only continue being courteous to him, and hope that he got over it. Even if he still disliked her by the time she left, she could say she did everything she could to attempt a civil relationship with him. That was enough for her. Azami was still studying him when he turned and looked right at her.

******************

Renji glanced back to Azami, only to find her staring directly at him, but it didn't seem as though she was just glancing at him; she was looking at him as though she were analyzing him. He met her eyes for a split second before she blushed slightly and turned back Ikkaku and Yumichika, who were busy having their own conversation about bento boxes.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but, eh, does anyone know how we're getting there, or when we're going?" She placed her hands out behind her on the floor and leaned back slightly. She sighed in slight annoyance, and Renji was sure that it was difficult for her to find a comfortable position with her wound located where it was. She winced slightly as she attempted to stretch out her back and soon returned to sitting completely upright with a look of frustration. Renji went to speak but was cut off by an overly animated voice coming from the hallway.

"Miss Azami, I apologize for my lack of communication. I have arranged for a taxi to take you from the shop to your apartment, and then it will bring you back after you have gathered your things. It should be arriving shortly, if you care to wait outside with your escorts." Urahara now stood in the doorway of the dining room. His eyes shadowed by his hat, and a grin plastered on the visible part of his face. Azami looked at him and nodded, then paused suddenly.

"Can someone…um…help me get up?" She said it sheepishly; Renji could tell it wasn't in her nature to ask for help. Her green eyes looked down in embarrassment as Yumichika hurried to the other side of the table and gently lifted her up and placed her on her feet. She shot an apologetic smile and murmured a 'thank you' to him, and as she placed her left arm across his shoulders, he snaked his around her waist to help her get outside. Renji and Ikkaku stood up shortly after Yumichika had gotten her out the door, and began following the pair out to the front of the shops lot.

Renji watched the girl talk to Yumichika, grinning at him warmly. What the hell was this crap that she was pulling? She had been completely mental, not to mention, violent, the first two times they had spoken, and now this? She was pretending to play the innocent, polite victim? It pissed him off immensely. Ikkaku turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

"So we're supposed to believe that's the girl that insulted you and attempted to stab you in the kitchen?" He barked out a laugh and then spoke again. "If Ichigo hadn't told me first, I wouldn't have believed you. I like that she has that temper though. It makes her even more appealing…If that's possible." He grinned his fierce grin again. Renji scoffed.

"Believe me Ikkaku, that girl is anything but fuckin' pleasant. She's probably just too tired to take anyone on right now. I'll bet she goes off again before she moves out of here in two weeks." He looked back at the girl and Yumichika, who were now stopped on the sidewalk outside the lot. When they approached the two of them, Renji could see a bright colored car coming down the street. When it pulled up on the side of the road, he and the other two male Shinigami look at each other, puzzled.

*******************

Azami shuffled a couple feet closer to the cab with Yumichika, she leaned down slowly and pulled the handle on the door, swinging it open. She motioned at the inside of the car to Renji and Ikkaku who looked back at her, positively baffled. She sighed and ran her free hand through her hair.

"Get in." She stated flatly. They looked at her, confusion still plastered to their faces. "Haven't you ever seen a car before?" Renji nodded his head as if to say 'yes' and Yumichika and Ikkaku did the same. "You've never actually gotten in one, I assume?" They shook their heads back and forth, and she nearly laughed. "Well, just climb in, and sit down." Ikkaku's expression turned into one of excitement, as though it was some new kind of conquest to take on. Renji crawled in after him, and then Azami was helped in by Yumichika, who sat down after her, at the end of his seat, with as little of his body touching the car as was humanly possible. She tiredly grabbed her seatbelt and strapped it over her waist before sighing… Not only was she tired and aching, but now she had to teach three Shinigami about modern transportation... This day just kept getting better and better.

She looked at her fellow passengers as the car wound down the city streets, studying each of their expressions intently. Ikkaku did not have his seat belt on, and was leaning forward with his head between the front seats, watching everything that the cab driver was doing. Every touch of a button, every turn of the wheel, and every stomp on the gas and brake pedals were under his scrutinizing gaze. She looked to her opposite side, at Yumichika. Who was sitting with his hands in his lap, and the most disgusted expression she had ever seen a human carry. He was horrified to let any of his bare skin touch any part of the car. She glanced over at Renji, who carried a look of complete indifference, her eyes traveled to his hand that was grasping the support handle just above the inside of the door… His knuckles were white from his powerful and nervous grip. She looked to his other hand that rested on his right knee…It was the same thing, tense hands and white knuckles. She looked forward and smiled to herself. Man, these guys just made it too _easy_. She looked over at Yumichika.

"You guys should all put on your seat belts, for safeties sake." She leaned back in her chair and pointed to the material strapped across her waist. Ikkaku began looking around for where his might be located, and eventually grabbed his shoulder belt from behind his seat. He looked at Azami, and shrugged, as if he didn't know what to do after finding it. She sighed and looked at Renji. "I apologize for this in advance." The red head looked completely confused by her statement, and she shifted her weight, and leaned over him slowly, propping herself up, with an elbow in his chest for support. She motioned at Ikkaku to hand her his belt, he gave it to her, and her hand shot down to the gap between Renji and Ikkaku to dig out the buckle, then she simply snapped it together and slowly righted herself with a gasp and a wince, holding Renji's lap belt in her other hand.

********************

"I took the liberty of grabbing yours while I was helping him." She held the strap up with a small grin on her face, then drew it over his lap and snapped it into the buckle at his side. He was red in the face, and he knew it. He could feel it. She had been to close for comfort when helping Ikkaku. She grinned up at him mischievously and slowly turned to look at Yumichika, who was still sitting at the end of his seat.

"Yumichika…" She looked down at the Shinigami's lap, "You don't have your seat belt on yet…Why is that?" She crossed her arms over her chest. Renji grinned, as did Ikkaku behind him. They knew what she was doing…She was terrorizing Yumichika, who clearly thought the taxi was the dirtiest, most disgusting thing he had seen since entering the human world. The black haired Shinigami glanced down at Azami with a look of pure distaste.

"I won't touch more of this thing than I have too. It's hideous, and it smells odd." He turned his nose up and Azami scoffed at his side.

"But you have to wear your seat belt… It's the law. So sit back and I'll help you put it on." Yumichika looked at her, confused. Renji could tell he was having an internal debate as to whether or not human laws applied to him. He finally sighed, and very, very stiffly, sat back in his seat. He reached up and grabbed the shoulder belt, before handling it to her so that she could snap it into place. Yumichika looked as though he would become physically ill at any moment; he was grimacing and completely rigid in his seat. Renji glanced at Azami, who was now leaning her head back, eyes closed, with a large grin on her face.


End file.
